Stuck in the In Between
by zeppery4
Summary: Flint is stuck. In between becoming an Avenger and being seen as a kid, in between who she wants and needs to be. Flint is not sure how to get unstuck when Peter Parker joins the Avengers. Being the daughter of the infamous Black Widow and devilish Hawkeye, could the spy be friends to a friendly soldier and help each other become unstuck? *Clint has no secret family* REVIEWS ILY :)
1. Chapter 1

My eyes burned, I hadn't slept in days and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. From the crying to blankly staring at the hospital wall my eyes had been through the works in the past couple of days. I tried not to blink too often because the fear of seeing that… _image_ over and over again played every single time I was faced with darkness. I could hear the blood in my head pounding against my skull; my body ached from sleeping on chairs for the past two nights.

My eyes were trained on him… not moving- hooked up to a hospital bed with wires and tubes connected to him trying to save his life. The person in the bed seemed like an imposter, usually he was talking nonstop about movies, missions, school and the future, running around and jumping; now he laid motionless in a bed.

 _Flint run! You have to get out of here! I won't lose you too._ His words played on repeat over and over again in my head like a scratched record- seared into my brain like a brand.

A soft hand was placed on my shoulder which caused me to flinch. Turning around I looked up and saw Tony Stark, looking a little rougher than usual standing behind me. His usual glossy tamed hair was a bit out of place and messy, his signature personalized suit was replaced with black slacks and a wrinkled long sleeve button up shirt with the Stark logo on the chest and his eyes weren't hidden behind mysterious black glasses, I could see the dark purple bags that were forming under his eyes.

"Flint…" he started.

"Don't…" I snapped. Everyone at this point had tried to console me in any way possible, but nothing in this world could help the growing rock in my gut every minute he laid unmoving in the hospital bed. Nothing anyone said could help me keep food without throwing it up hours later or give me easy sleep. "Please don't try and comfort me because it won't work." I hissed, I felt my mother's temper inside me that my father had always warned me about.

"He knew what he was getting into," Tony tried anyway, that's one thing I'll give the man, he never stopped trying. "You couldn't have predicted what Doctor Octopus was going to do."

"He's my partner… I'm supposed to watch his back. I'm the veteran here and I knew… or was supposed to know…" I chocked back words. I wanted to cry but I think my body couldn't produce tears fast enough at the rate I was shedding them. "I'm sorry Tony… I failed." My voice quivered.

"We both did." Tony's hand tightened on my shoulder.

Together we both stared at Peter Parker, Spiderman, lay lifeless in his bed with no solace on when or if he would wake up.

 **-One Week Earlier-**

I spat blood out of my mouth and smiled. Adrenaline ran through my veins with pleasure, I felt alive and ready for more.

"What's the matter Wanda? Your magic juice running out?" I taunted, picking out the shard of glass that had dug it was into my lip. Despite everyone assuming Wanda was always in control of her emotions I knew how to easily get under her skin. She cursed something in her native language before flicking her hands in her usual way causing cars to fling towards me.

Smiling, I dodged the cars with ease; she was losing her focus and it showed. I just had to keep this charade up for a few minutes longer and I'd have her pinned. My equipment gave me a comforting weight on my leg; nothing lethal of course but enough to give you a warranted trip to the ER.

A truck flung over my head, while in mid-run I flung myself onto my back sliding along the concrete floor. Reaching down into my mini arsenal attached to my left leg my fingers trailed down onto the electric pulse chips that would send out enough electricity into the victim it would easily knock over a lion, although Wanda was no ordinary human. Grabbing two chips I easily flung them over towards Wanda.

She let out a scream, more aggravated than pain and the truck above me suddenly lost its red glow surrounding it and fell lifelessly towards the floor. Jumping up I saw Wanda on her knees huffing angrily. Looking at me she had a red glow in her eyes.

 _Shit._ I had really pissed her off. Automatically I reach onto my left leg and brought out a mini ball that didn't look like much. But once I clicked the top button and threw it aggressively towards Wanda, a net sprung free whipping it's way over to Wanda. It would have been a perfect wrap up to this battle… if only she had stayed distracted.

Using her telepathic powers, she held the net in midair, no longer flinging towards her. Now it was her turn to grin satisfactory. My jaw clenched, it was late in this fight and I didn't have a lot of weapons to call upon.

 _Don't always rely on your artilleries. You will not always have them and hand to hand combat is the best back up you can have._ My mom's voice ringed in my head. Before it happened I could tell what Wanda was going to do.

I read her movements just as easily as reading a book. She used her powers to fling the net towards me- it would have gotten me too if not for my split-second acrobatics, flipping to miss the net by mere millimeters.

"Running out of ideas Flint?" She mocked me. I gritted my teeth, Wanda had the advantaged when fighting from a distance but she lacked at hand to hand combat. I bolted towards her in a split second. Within a blink of an eye I was up in her face and we were fighting hand to hand. I could see in her eyes how she was out of her element.

I jabbed her in the side, hard enough for her to grunt in pain. She returned to a swift grab and twist of my arm that cause me to lose my footing but only for a second. By jumping up and twisting I ended up kicking my foot that connected with her shoulder. She let go of my arm and stumbled, that gave me enough time to sweep her legs. Just as my foot was about to knock her feet out from under her I heard her voice.

"Enough!" She yelled with determination and at that moment my momentum stopped dead. I felt something strange happen to my foot, looking down I saw Wanda's familiar red glow surround my leg.

 _Dammit_. I knew it was over. However, just to show who really won- Wanda manipulated the control over my foot to swing high into the air and stay there leaving me upside down hanging five feet from the ground. I had the perfect view to see her smug face.

"Let her down Wanda." A commanding voice rang through the training room. Steve Roger, Captain America himself, came trotting down the stairs. Wanda gave me one more satisfying smile before dropping me a bit too harshly onto the ground.

"You ok?" Steve reached down and offered his hand. Reluctantly I grabbed it and he helped me up. "Wanda, you're finished with training for today." Steve told Wanda who promptly exited the room.

"Was it that bad?" I asked Steve while rubbing the shoulder I landed on.

"Not that bad, trust me holding your own against Wanda is a feat in itself." Steve smiled that perfect white toothed smile. If he wasn't a super soldier he could have made it as a movie star no doubt. "Getting into her head is something to be proud of; not the most noble choice of winning but a victory is a victory." He nudged me a bit.

"You could see that?" I felt my face grow hot. Manipulation and getting inside people's heads was something I was good at, although not necessarily proud of.

"I've known your mom for a while, I can see where her training comes through." Steve gave a small laugh which I returned. "Now, go get cleaned up-Tony has an announcement later." Steve waved me off to the rooms and turned to go down another hallway.

Walking down the pristine white of the Avengers Headquarters I felt even dirtier than I was- covered in blood, cuts and oil. There were nameless workers that scurried around in lab coats and business suits, always trying to keep the Avengers up to date in the good graces of all of the world governments.

It had been 3 years since the whole Avengers Civil War era and personally I was thankful for that, but then again I wasn't really around when all of that went down.

I should probably give you the full backstory.

My name is Flint Masha Barton, only daughter to the one and only Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow and Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. Yes, my name is Flint and his is Clint trust me I've heard it a millions times. Honestly _what_ ran through my parents' head when naming me I'll never know but let's just roll with it.

When I was born my parents, for obvious reason, were afraid for my safety. They had massive amounts of enemies who would love to get their hands on their child to use as leverage. After talking with Fury who agreed to hide me away, they let me live with my Uncle Barney in Waverly, Iowa. For 14 years I was kept in the dark about who my parents were. My Uncle Barney, would make up stories when I was younger about my parents being great heroes who saved the world and kept me hidden because I was their treasure.

As a kid that was great to hear, but as I got older the stories weren't enough to satisfy. Their secret identities consumed me until eventually I threated to run away from my uncle unless he told me everything… and he did.

No more than a week later, after 14 years of being in the dark I met my parents. I saw myself in them, I had my father's dirty blond hair that no matter how many times I brushed it, the hair never stayed where I wanted it too. I had my mother's emerald greens eyes and her high cheekbones. You should have seen the looks on their faces; my father said it was the first time he had seen Natasha cry out of happiness.

Over the next several years they came around and kept in touch, sometimes they would be there for several weeks but then I wouldn't hear from there for half a year. It wasn't the most nuclear family dynamic but it worked.

It took me years of begging, pleading and training before I could prove to my parents that I could train with SHIELD. At first they were stubbornly opposed saying that the reason they hid me away was to keep me away from this life. All of that changed once Captain America brought down SHIELD. All the files were leaked, even the ones that were buried deep inside SHIELD's archives, including the documentation of my birth.

They both knew it was a matter of time before someone shifted through the hundreds of thousands of files to find me, so they agreed training me was the best option. And nearly 5 years after I met my parents, I was working with them with the Avengers.

Given I wasn't a technical 'Avenger' but they did allow me to house here for my own safety sake. My parents were very gun-hoe about me becoming an Avenger anytime soon but I would get my own small mission every once and a while.

The missions I got were mostly to keep me out of trouble or getting involved in something I couldn't handle. The routine mission often involved some low level criminal that needed to be put in his or her place and I was more than happen to do it.

Now, waking into my own little room I was reminded about how much my life had changed so quickly. A few years ago I was a girl who was convinced that her parents left her and she wouldn't amount to anything- now I was training with the superheroes of the world.

Recalling Steve's words about Tony's meeting I quickly showered off all of the grim of the day, watching the red and brown colors mix down the drain. After toweling off I threw on my regular soft black leggings and a red t-shirt. I didn't bother brushing my horrible tangled hair and let the wet stands seep into my shirt.

Exiting my room, I was greeted with probably my personal favorite Avenger, Sam Wilson aka Falcon.

"Hey Sam!" I called. He smiled wide enough that I could see the gap in his teeth. He was in his regular cloths which was a casual gray active wear shirt with gym shorts.

"Hey there kid," He gave me a pat on the back. We grew to like each other shortly after I moved here. He was the first one to really open up with me, plus we had a shared habit of friendly teasing Steve. "You headed to Tony's announcement."

"Yep, any idea what it's about?" I kept his quick pace down the hall.

"I have an idea…" He trailed. I had the feeling that he knew more than he was letting on. "But let's just get there first." He quickened his pace even more before I had time to argue.

I started to job to keep up with him and pulled ahead. I gave him a playful wink, Sam started jogging a little faster than me. I picked up my pace and pulled ahead, then he pulled ahead, back and forth until both of us were sprinting as fast as we could down into the meeting room.

My lungs with the clean air of the building, my legs burned but I didn't care, it made me feel strong. After less than a minute of racing I tapped the meeting door a second before Sam did.

" _Sonofabitch_." Same breathed as one word. He didn't want to show it, but he was slightly winded.

"You're getting too used to those wings Wilson," I teased. I didn't let Sam get another word out before I ducked into the door.

Everyone was sitting in a plain room around a white table that probably had some high-tech hidden within it just as everything Tony invents does.

Not all the Avengers were here today which wasn't a surprise, they usual aren't unless some horrible, world-ending villain threatens humanity. Today it was just myself, Sam (who was trying not to let his heavy breathing be noticed), my dad Hawkeye, Vision, Wanda, Steve, Scott Lang and Tony at the front of the room. My mom was currently on a mission elsewhere, Thor was helping Asgard and Hulk was with him. Black Panther was in Wakanda tending to his duties as king. Everyone was dressed casually, from the looks of it, this was probably just a routine meeting.

"Everyone," Tony said. "Now you all are probably thinking why I brought you here today…"

"We live here Tony," Scott piped up sarcastically.

"You are right Scott," Tony rolled his eyes. "But this is very important and I wanted the Avengers, plus Barton's spawn," Tony waved his hand and gestured to me. Tony rarely referred to me by my actual name, it was always Barton's spawn, Romanoff's spawn, spawn or just mini-widow.

"I wanted you all to hear this before the press release later today." Tony clasped his hands together excitedly. "After years of being my protégé and just being friendly and in his neighborhood, I am oh so ever pleased to announce that Spiderman has officially decided to before part of the Avengers. Peter!"

A slim boy walked out from the doorway looking so nervous and excited that it looked like he might throw up. He was wearing jeans and a shirt that had some kind of science pun on it from the looks of it. His hair was slightly curled at the end and swept to the side.

"Hi guys," He waved excitedly to all of us.

"You let the kid join?" My father was the first to speak up.

"Now Barton he's not really a kid, he's your daughter's age. And if I recall he did disarm Cap when we all had our little disagreement." My dad sat with an annoyed look on his face while Vision and Wanda hid a grin.

"I'm really excited to be here guys, and sorry about the shield Steve… I mean Mr. Captain America unless you want to be called Steve—" The poor kid was tripping over his words.

"Hey," Steve stood up and placed a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Steve is just fine, and don't worry about the shield; the past is in the past. Welcome to the Avengers kid." Peter looked up at Steve like he had just given him a million dollars.

"Yes well we are all excited to have Mr. Parker here on the team with us. However, he does only have," Tony checked his watched. "About 40 minutes to get ready for a formal press appearance. Flint!" My named being called surprised me. I walked over to Tony and Peter with slight annoyance.

"Mr. Parker's room is just down the hall from your own, H4-11. Would you be so kind as to show him to his room?" Tony smiled. His tone was always relatively the same so I could never figure out if he was being sarcastic or genuine.

"Sure, common" I motioned for Peter to follow me. Just as I was exiting the room I heard my dad's deep voice get stern with Tony.

"You put his room just down the hall from Flint's? What the hell Tony?" I could imagine my dad's thick eyebrows scrunched together in anger.

"Don't worry Legolas I have this baby monitoring protocol…" And that was the last thing I heard Tony say before the door shut behind us.

Walking down the hall with Peter was like taking an already hyper kid to the candy shop that just happened to be attached to a toy store.

"Holy crap this is amazing! So do all of the Avengers live here or is it just on occasion? Does Thor come here when he's not on Asgard? What about Black Panther?" He was already forming new questions before the last one barely had a chance to get out.

"You're a wired one aren't you?" I joked.

"I guess you could say that," His faced got a bit flushed and he swallowed looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry I don't even know your name, are you a new Avenger?"

I laughed for a second. "I wish but no. I'm Flint Barton- daughter of Black Widow and Hawkeye." I introduced myself casualty but by the look on Peter's face you'd think I'd just pulled out a tooth. He looked slightly horrified but intrigued.

"I'm Peter. Peter Parker- but you obviously already knew that cause Mr. Stark already introduced me." He stuck out his hand politely. Shaking it I could see that the wires in his brain were short-circuiting.

"It's nice to meet you Peter Parker." I smiled. Despite his hyper puppy persona, I was eager to have someone my age in the building. Don't get me wrong Sam is a great friend to have around and pulling pranks with Scott is the best, but to have someone I can connect to on just an age scale- that was something I was looking forward too.

"Here's your room," I gestured to a door with the numbers H4-11 on it. The door slid open to reveal a basic room that was waiting to be personalized. "Have fun at your press interview Spiderman." I wished him luck and strolled down the hall into my own room.

If someone had told me that in less than a week I would be willing to lay down my life for that boy, I would have punched you in the face while blushing.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day should have been boring. It was Thursday which meant maintenance on everybody's on everybody's tech. You had to go through everything you had and make sure that it was working it tip-top shape. For my father it was simple- check to make sure all of his arrows and his bow were working properly. For others, such as Sam, who had to make sure his wings and everything that the wings encased were working fine which usually turned into an all-day thing.

For me Thursdays were a day for me to train by myself without worrying about anybody walking in on me… or at least before Peter came. I was in the gym for nearly an hour, running, punching, stretching- everything I could think of so when Wanda and I were paired again to fight, I would be ready.

When I felt a soft tap on the back of my shoulder while I had my headphones in, my first reaction was to swing. Peter barely had enough time to duck before my hand swung over his head.

"Holy shit!" I barely heard myself say. I took out my earphones and was met with the gaze of a perplexed Peter.

"Why'd you swing?" He was genuinely curious.

"Peter, you're in the Avenger's Headquarters. First rule, don't sneak up on one of them, or me for that matter, while training. My first reaction when someone I don't know touches me is the swing and that goes for most of the others." I snipped.

"Oh I'm sorry, I was just kind of bored since I have nothing to do and I was looking for someone…" He trailed off. "But I'll leave you back to your workout." He started to walk off.

"Hey… I'll wash up really quick and I'll take you on the grand tour." I offered a smile. "I've never had someone to hang out with on Thursdays, usually their just tech days." Peter returned my smile. "Be right back." I ran off into the restroom, splashing water on my face I looked at myself in the mirror; my face was slightly red from working out, sweat was dribbled along my hairline and I could smell myself. For the first time in what seemed like more than a while I was suddenly concerned about what I looked like.

 _Why should I be concerned?_ I ridiculed myself. _Peter's just another Avenger._ I clenched my jaw. _But you want him to like you. NO I don't. Yes, you do. SHUT UP!_

I grabbed an extra shirt I kept in my locker which made me smell slightly less bad but not a whole lot. I came out to Peter waiting patiently where I left him. He had his hands clasped behind his bad and was swaying on his feet.

"Common Parker," I gestured. We both walked down the hallway silently at first. "As you can tell this is the Training Wing. Workouts, versus, strategic measures and combat training will all in this wing. Training happens Wednesday and Friday." Peter nodded his head eagerly and panned his head around.

"Who trains with who?" Peter asked with his head still looking around. ]

"Well it's whoever they deem is in your category. Say if Thor is ever here, he and Hulk will _always_ have a match to see who is the strongest. The leader switches every few weeks. Steve will usually go against my dad or Sam. I'm on the level with Wanda and Scott."

"So when will I start training?" Peter couldn't keep the excitement from his voice.

"Probably this Saturday and you'll probably start on my level, compared to the others we're the newbies."

"So we'll be fighting?"

"I guess we could… yeah. But don't worry, nobody has had a life-threatening injury… yet." I poked fun, Peter gave a nervous laugh.

The hallway eventually ended with the option of taking a right or a left. "That was is Stark's personal garage." I pointed down the left hallway. "It's for his cars but also when he wants to tinker around with another suit. Follow me," I veered to the right. I saw Peter look down the left hallway for a second probably wondering what kind of tech treasure laid in Tony's garage but he eventually picked up his feet and ran after me.

"This," I stated as I entered the heart of the building. Rafters rose high above showing workers scurrying by without a thought. The radiant white made it almost hard to look at with the sun streaming in the 10-foot windows. "is the main part of the building. Business rooms, statistic centers, global tracking computers and most importantly the dining hall- all reside in this part of the building."

Peter looked around with his mouth slightly agape. I couldn't help but let a warm feeling run through my core seeing such an optimistic and wondrous person Peter seemed to be.

 _He won't like you for long._ A thought that didn't seem to be my own ran through my head causing my smile to fade. Peter was like the sun, shining, radiant causing everyone around him to feel it; I reminded myself more of moonless night- mysterious, cold and paranoid.

Pushing past I didn't even tell Peter to catch up. When he finally did, we walked up the stairs that hung by cable wires from the ceiling. If there was one thing I had to give Tony credit for was that his style was aesthetically pleasing. Reaching the highest floor and looking down a took a deep breath. Even being here for more than a year I always took time to appreciate where I was.

"I'll show you my favorite part," I nudged Peter to follow. We walked in silence to the end of the hallway with only one door laying on our right with the word _Staff_ written plainly. I knew this door was always unlocked so I ducked inside really quick and pulled Peter along.

It wasn't until Peter and I were standing alone in the closet that I suddenly noticed how small this closet was. It was barely big enough to stand beside each other without touching in at least one way. I felt my body start to feel warm which I wasn't happy about; I felt his hand accidently brush mine and his quickly pulled his away. Peter smelled of clean laundry with a hint of peppermint.

"Your favorite part is a closet?" Peter joked breaking the silence.

"You always got to dig a little deeper before you find what you're looking for," I winked, not knowing if he could see it in the dim closet. Automatically I moved forward three steps and reach my hand up to grab a chain and yanked down.

Immediately light flooded the closet as the door to the room descended revealing stairs to climb onto the roof. I couldn't help but have a cocky smirk grow on my face.

Not waiting for Peter to say anything I nearly floated up the stairs jumping on every other one till I popped out onto the white roof with the giant Avengers 'A' painted on it. The fresh air was welcomed into my lungs as I took several deep breaths in and out. Another thing I learned I shared with my parents was my father's preference of high places. I looked around to see the beautiful landscape around us, to the left laid the storage unit where most of our artillery is being held and down below was a new state-of-art jet that was ready to take off at a moments notice.

I turned to see Peter walking around in the roof in contempt, he seemed to share my love from looking above. "I'm guessing you've been on bigger buildings in New York," I offered an invisible arm of friendship. I knew deep down that Peter may not completely like me but if we were going to be living in the same building, might as well be friendly towards one another.

"On days when it was slow or Mr. Stark didn't have a mission for me, which was pretty often," he smirked. "I would go around just seeing how high I could allow myself to get on the buildings."

"Highest one you achieved?"

"Let's just say the Empire State Building was one and done. It was fun, but I doubt I would do it again." He laughed. The warm breeze ran itself in my knotted hair and surrounded us in the scent of nature which made me skin tingle in delightment.

"I would kill to see New York," I stated plainly just to fill the void.

"You've never been?" Peter sounded surprised. "You live less than a three our drive away from it."

"I haven't always lived here…" I began. I remembered Iowa and my Uncle Barney- who by all mean should have never had a child and growing up in his old farm house. "I just found out only about 5 years ago who my parents actually _were_." I sighed.

"Sorry about that," Peter came closer so that I could smell peppermint again. Without thinking I walked over to the edge facing the forest and sat down on the edge with my feet dangling over, I was startled when Peter did the same. "How was it when you first met them?"

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. My parents, as much as I loved them, were a touchy subject for me. During my younger years all of my friends had their parents for all of the Father and Mother's Day activities while I only had my Uncle Barney come to both, usually smelling like the bar that he ran. I looked at Peter and felt a shift; this kid seemed genuine, his radiant coffee eyes swimming with understanding.

"Well," I finally breathed. "It was interesting. I knew from TV who they were. I was almost 13 when the Battle of New York happened. Then when Steve brought down SHIELD I was 14… I think when the files dropped they knew they needed me to protect myself. I wish you could have seen the look on my face when I opened the door to see two Avengers standing at my doorstep. After nearly fainting, they came in and everything was explained to me. Them having me, hiding me but never forgetting me. Don't get me wrong, I was furious but so relieved at the same time. After that they came around when they could, they would call letting me know what they were up to and I got to talk to them about my life.

"I would beg them to take me with them anywhere. Take me to the Avengers Tower, put in a training program because… it sounds weird to say but I _felt_ like I needed to do something to help the world and this was my chance to do it. I would go after school to a gym and train for hours on end until I could barely stand. Finally, after help from my Uncle Barney, they agreed to enroll me in the training program. Tony allows me to live to let me make up all the lost time with my parents." I looked over at Peter who was listening intently. I felt naked, I had just told a lot of my personal feeling to a kid I had just met. There was a certain aura about him that seemed trustworthy.

"Well," I coughed trying to move on from what I had said. "What about you? How did you become the Spiderman?"

"Long story short I basically got bit by a spider." He smiled fondly at the memory. "After that I started noticing that I got all of these abilities, I was more agile hoping from building to building without much effort, doing flips and jumping over 15 foot fences. I became stronger without even working out. Just everything was enhanced. Shortly after I got bit… my parents were killed." He stopped for a minute looking out into the sky. I quickly felt a lump form in my heart. I was going on and on about wanting to meet my parents and how great it was to finally know who they were when his were dead. She felt her face grow hot in embarrassment and guilt.

"They died in a car crash, right at the end of freshman year of high school." He swallowed again. "Then I went to live with my Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They were gracious to take me in. They even continued my tuition for my school so I would still have all of my friends. Then, my Uncle Ben was murdered…"

 _Fuck._ I felt worse talking about my Uncle Barney who, by no means was the greatest caregiver, but he was fun, provided for me and was always there. I felt myself sinking into a puddle of guilt and regret.

"Did they catch the guy?" I whispered.

"Eventually." Peter breathed. "Anyway, after that it was just May and I. She was such a wreck losing her sister and her husband in the span of a year. After that, I made my own suit, I got the tech I use for my web shooters at school and with a quick chemistry experience I had the actual material I used for my webs. So I decided to become Spiderman. Just trying to make my neighborhood better. Stopping petty theft, helping old ladies cross the street- basic stuff like that."

"How did you go from being your friendly neighborhood Spiderman to an Avenger?" I felt the urge to keep talking. I felt special that Peter was opening stuff this deep to me. Lord knows I didn't, I told the basics and that was it.

"Well, the crimes started getting a little more intense. I handled a lot with ease and without getting anyone hurt. People started putting my good deeds on YouTube and then one day Tony Stark just showed up at my house. He offered me a 'Stark Internship' that was really his training program to become an Avenger. My first mission was to basically be on his team during the Avengers Civil War to give me a test of what actually missions were like. After that, there was nothing for a while- just went back to the friendly neighborhood thing. Then I had to deal with a guy who was using the New York alien technology…"

"The Chitauri."

"Yea, them. Well, they were going to sell this tech to some really not ok guys. I knew a lot of people were going to get hurt. After a lot of investigating and days of trying to convince Mr. Stark, I finally caught the mastermind behind it; he just happened to be the dad of the girl I was taking to homecoming that year."

"That must have been weird." I giggled.

"You have no idea." He returned the smile. "It was after that, Mr. Stark offered to make me an Avenger right then and there; but during that whole thing with taking down the alien tech guy… I really almost died. Like, almost being shot, crushed and dropped from hundreds of feet in the air. I- I was still in high school and wanted to see the end of it honestly. So, I took the friendly neighborhood persona for a while longer and once I finished I told Mr. Stark that I was ready. And here I am!" Peter gestured generally.

I looked at him intently, this kid had been through a lot more shit than I thought. I felt guilty for judging him to quickly, his happy persona led me to believe that he was just some privilege kid who happened to have something amazing happen to him. Instead, he was a young adult whose parents and uncle killed, had only his aunt left and was nearly killed by a crazy man. I felt guilt-ridden that I had held back much more than he did, but it was not the time to make it seem like a pity-party for myself.

"You're a lot tougher than I gave you credit for," I laughed. He smiled back. I felt a pang of friendship forming and I let myself drown in the feeling. In Iowa I was seen as too tall, too muscular for a girl, a girl whose own parents just gave her away.

"I get that a lot; I'm just afraid Mr. Stark is still only take me on certain missions. Keep me out of the real stuff." Peter admitted.

"You wouldn't be the only one," I said.

"Have you had a mission since being here?" Peter asked softly. My body tensed suddenly.

 _Don't talk about_ that _mission. You have to lie to everyone about what happened. No one has to know._ My thoughts raced through my head so fast that it hurt. I didn't want to talk about my one and only mission thus far- I couldn't talk about it.

"Just some routine stuff," I lied, it was the first time that I lied easily but it felt like a ton of bricks were weighing on my gut. I was lying to Peter, the boy who had just shared deeply emotional scaring stories, and I was lying about mine. But he couldn't know- nobody knew. "You know- just take out some drug dealers here and there. Nothing serious." I had tried over and over again for hours to block it out.

"Common," I needed to get away from the subject. "Let's grab some lunch, I'm starving. Plus- you have not had as enchilada until you had Vision make you one."

"Vision can make enchiladas?" Peter sounded eager.

"He has an infinity stone in his head… yes he can make enchiladas." I chuckled back at him.

We ran down the steps and through the hallways. I felt like a regular teenager for once, having fun with a friend I had just made. It was then I knew I had made a huge mistake.


	3. Chapter 3

The next few days were almost bliss. Every morning Peter and I would meet every day at breakfast. From there we were train individually for a little bit, workout, eat lunch, talk with whoever was around and then end the day with hanging out on the roof if the weather permitted. My favorite part of the day was watching the sun set while laying on my back beside Peter. We'd talk about nothing in particular changing topic to topic with ease- there was never a lull in the conversation.

He'd tell me about New York and that one day he would take me to the Empire State Building so that I could see if for myself. He told me about the people in his neighborhood that grew used to seeing a red figure sling from building to building cheering him on. I would return to tell him about Iowa and my Uncle Barney. How he ran a bar and was the life of the part. I told him one particular story about how one morning I had to go searching for him after he didn't come home and ended up finding him sleeping with the pigs, literally- in a barn down the road.

The cord in my chest tightened every time I was with him. The friendship I was so desperate to have but had always pushed away- I finally had it. Peter didn't seem to care that I was nearly his height or that either of my parents could kill him before he even got the chance to blink. Despite not knowing who my parents were for a long part of my life, I felt like an outsider even in my own skin sometimes. Peter made me feel like I could almost embrace who I was- _almost._

When Saturday finally came around and the combat training against each other was scheduled again. I was gearing up to go against Wanda again- I had a few new ideas to show her. My eagerness quickly become unwillingness once I saw Tony walking my way as I was going to the training room.

"Spawn," Tony called.

"Tony," I rolled my eyes.

"I have to give you some news," He proclaimed. "you, will be facing Mr. Parker today in the battle training simulator."

The news didn't sit well with me. "I though Wanda and I were going another round?"

"Yes, well- I've seen you two hanging around so often I thought this would be a good chance for you guys to get to know each other on another level," Tony winked at me as I felt heat rise to my face. Before I could get another word out he was already walking down the hall.

Groaning I made my way to the training room to see Peter already in his suit but without the mask. I must admit, it fitted him well. During the past several days his usual attire was a comfy graphic science shirt with some comfortable black pants, he always looked a little lanky compared to the strength that he had. But in the suit it was hard to miss the curve of his muscles.

 _Stop!_ I yelled in my head. He was my friend, nothing more, nothing less. Walking up to him I was not keen on informing him of Tony's new plan.

"Flint!" Peter ran over to you. "Ok so does Ant-Man grow to his super huge size in the building because honestly I don't think he'll fit if he does. And I need help with some catchy phrase when I take him down."

"You're not going to battle Scott, Peter. It's going to be you and me." I said plainly.

"But… I don't understand." Peter stuttered.

"Tony thinks that we should know each other on the battle field. How we act, what our strategies are, strengths, weaknesses- things like that." I explain quickly. "I'm going to get changed and I'll be out here in 5 minutes. Be ready." I walked away before he could get in a single word. I felt bad, but the faster we got through this the faster we could forget it. I didn't want to fight Peter but Stark's idea did make sense.

As I got into the changing room I slipped on my familiar battle gear. Just like my mother I preferred a slim black suit that wasn't very flashy. Since both my mother and father had their signature colors, red and purple, I thought I should have my own. I picked a dark blue that reminded me of the depths of the ocean, where the light was almost nonexistent. On my left leg were tubes that fitted tightly around my calf with comfortable weight. Each held a different device that I could use in battle; electrocution chips, mini bows that only took a push of a button to fire and find the enemy, small balls that held a net for capture and smoke bombs for a quick getaway. I also put on my very own pair of electrifying gloves, I set the pulse down low enough to where it wouldn't hurt Peter.

Taking a deep breath, I quickly tied my hair back in a braid which calmed my nerves a bit. I had never seen Peter fight but I knew I was in for a tricky one. Wanda was good from afar but Peter was decent at any angel- he had his webs for distance but they were also useful up close.

I walked out slowly and reluctantly. There, in the middle of the floor stood Peter, still without his mask looking up at me with grief plastered on his face. Neither of us liked this but if we were going to work together we had to overcome this uncomfortable hurdle. The room was filled with objects that one might find on a battle field, a couple of old cars, huge 20-foot concrete blocks that were supposed to represent sides of buildings, random objects scattered across the floor that could be used as a weapon or as a hazard. Behind him on the landing a few yards above the ground stood Tony and my father chatting to each other.

"Let's just get this over with," I yelled into the room. Peter pulled his mask on and Tony started paying attention.

"Begin then," Tony officially started the training session.

Peter made the first move jumping onto one of the concrete blocks and sticking to it like it was made of gum. He slung a few webs at me that I easily avoided. Jumping on top of a car I flung myself towards Peter. I couldn't tell because of the mask but I think I surprised him because there was little resistance when I grabbed his arm and pulled him to the ground. I flexed my hands so that a small pulse of electricity would surprise him but not hurt him. I heard him yelp a little before hitting the ground and rolling to avoid breaking my ankles.

Standing up I was met with Peter shooting more webs at me but this time they caught my hands and bound them together. He came running towards me; just when he was close enough I dropped onto my knees and swept his feet. His momentum carried him flying through the air and landing near the wall.

This gave me enough time to flex my hands hard enough so that I could feel the electricity pulsing through the webs making them easier to rip apart. Just as I ripped them apart I felt another web attach to my leg, gluing it to the floor. I silently thanked that it was not my left leg.

I heard Peter's footsteps run from behind me. Looking over my shoulder I saw him jump and flip over me with ease. Landing in from of me I grinned. "Don't worry, I will accept your surrender humbly," He joked.

"I'll accept yours eagerly." I smiled back. In one swift movement I reach down to my left leg and pulled out one of the mini specialty arrows my father had given me. I clicked and threw it like a dart at Peter. This one in particular was a taste of his own medicine, the arrow clung to him and started dispensing green goo that grew at a rapid pace and was sticky enough to hold a car to the ceiling. This gave me enough time to wrench my foot out of the web.

I heard Peter talking to Karen frantically trying to get his stuff of him. I knew that this was the final blow- take him down like my mother taught me and then he'll be stuck to the floor. I ran towards him enthusiastically, my muscle was ready and my mind was sharp. I jumped towards Peter.

The only thing I didn't count on was Stark programming something into the suit that would cause the green goo to slide off of him just as easily as water. But it was too late. As I kicked my right leg out, Peter grabbed it and use my own momentum to slam me into the concrete slab hard enough to make a sickening _crack_ somewhere in my body. Webs started sticking me to the slab faster than I could comprehend, but that was probably also due to the concussion I had just received. Peter came up close to me so that I could smell the orange he had today for breakfast.

"Oh common Flint, I'd thought you'd put more of a fight up than that." He mocked. Suddenly my mind went back to _that_ mission.

" _Common Flint, I'd thought you'd put more of a fight up than that." His mouth was so close to my ear I could feel his breath and smell the foulness of it. I swallowed hard. He had beaten me, chocked me, starved me- my body was barely functioning. "The Avengers thought they could send a little girl to do their dirty work, thinking that they can control everything. Well- how about you give them a message for me…" The man pinned my already shackled arm and bent his head towards me._

"GET AWAY!" I screamed. I struggled with my already pained body against the webs. "Get me out. Get away from me. Leave!" I screamed. My voice was raw and horse, I felt my body shaking against the concrete. Hot tears I didn't know I had ran down my face. "PLEASE HELP ME! Get me out! Somebody!" I croaked out in agony. The man was going to come back, he was going to finish what he started with me.

Through the tears I saw Peter's horrified face. He was like a deer caught in head lights- not knowing where to go or where to turn. My heart was beating so loud I thought it could burst from my chest any second.

Tony and my dad came into my vision ripping off the web as best as they could. Peter just watched in anguish. I could feel my face being covered in tears as I screamed out. "Get me out, get me out." I repeated without much conscious effort. It took them a few minutes but the webs were finally off and I was about to hit the ground before my dad caught me.

The ringing in my ears was so loud I couldn't hear anything, just their mouths moving. My dad was trying to talk to me and get me to talk back. He carried me out towards the hospital wing. Looking back, I saw Tony's mouth, obviously screaming at Peter, and my friend had his hands over his face but I could see his quivering mouth give away his sobbing.

Even though I was conscious, I don't remember the next few hours. There were questions that I gave half-answers to and physical exams nurses preformed on me that I reacted to automatically. My dad, the stoic Hawkeye, was standing in the corner looking like he may have a stroke any minute watching me go through this. His face looked older, I could see the lines carved into his face from the years of spying of stress, the scars on his arms became more apparent.

After at least an hour of tests and questions they finally let me rest in a nice comfy bed, the pillow was too flat for my liking but I wasn't going to complain. Even though I kept quiet and told everyone I was okay- the image of the man's face was seared into my head so harshly I could see his ugly mug every time I closed my eyes. He had brown eyes so dark they looked solid black, his pale skin was almost transparent, his teeth were crooked and grimy, he had scars covering his face and his long greasy black hair smelled dirty. He looked young, but the years of being what he was had twisted him to look at least 10 years older. My heart rate might have gone back down to normal but it was beating hard enough for me to feel it every bump.

"Clint," A friendly voice called. Slowly turning my head, I saw Tony, looking genuinely worried in the doorway. "How's Flint doing?" Despite my weakness I cracked a small smile at the mention of my name. My dad turned to me and then to Tony- his face hardening. Even straining my hearing I couldn't hear their shushed voices. Tony gave me a looked filled with regret and guilt- I knew it well.

They grew quick and then faintly I hear Tony saw to my dad. "He wants to see her." I drew a quick breath. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing so my heart rate wouldn't spike.

"Are you out of your mind Stark?" My father was quick to reject Peter's request. "If you think that kid is getting anywhere near her, then you're wrong."

"Clint, she's nineteen- she's not a kid and neither is Peter, technically." Tony did seem to care about us as friends.

"She's still _my_ kid." My father barked back.

"Yes, that you left with your brother for 14 years." Tony hissed. I heard the squeaking of shoes and I opened my eyelids just enough to see my father sizing up Tony against he doorframe. He was a good foot taller than the famed Iron Man and was a lot more built.

"I did that to protect her and I'm doing it now. Leave." His voice was deadly. Tony gave one more sigh and then walked off. I closed my eyes again and drifted into an unsatisfying sleep.

When I woke again the lights were dim and the scene out the widow revealed to me that it was in the middle of the night. My dad slumped over in a chair.

"Dad?" I managed to croak out. Within a second, he was up and by my bedside.

"Hey there Flint, you doing okay?" His voice was tired but relieved.

"Yeah." I breathed out. "You know you don't have to stay here?"

"I know, but…" He took a second. "You know your mom and I leaving you with Barney was the best plan we came up with at the time right?" I could see the remorse on his face plain as day. "We really did and do still love you. Just- a lot was building up and having you, as much as we loved it, we knew we couldn't give you what you deserved. I know Barney wasn't the best but he was all we had."

"Dad, it's ok- I don't blame you." I tried to smile. This was a conversation long overdue. "I'm just glad you came back." He took my hand and grabbed it tightly. "But dad…" I started. "you have to know I did feel out of place. I was always outside looking in." I admitted. His eyes fell. "Again, that has nothing to do with you and mom leaving. You guys make impossible choices every day and I know it's never easy but I'm telling you this so that you will understand what I'm about to say." He looked up. "Don't blame Peter. Don't ban him from seeing me because he's probably the closest to a true friend I'm ever going to get."

My father looked at my face up and down. I could see the reluctance in his face, his habits formed over years of spy and undercover work was making this near impossible for him. "I'll try my best." He finally answered.

A sudden ding filled the silent room. Taking out his phone my dad got a thin smile. "Your mom just landed, want me to go get her?"

"Sure." I yawned. "I just might be asleep when you get back." My father nodded and walked out of the room. Closing my eyes, I could feel my body drifting into sleep when I heard another set of shoes enter the room. The steps were lighter and quicker. I felt a presence come to my side.

"Flint?" Peter's voice whispered. My body suddenly became more relaxed in his presence. I didn't blame him for what he caused- I blamed myself for actually happened.

"I know you're probably asleep, and I just saw your dad leave so I don't have long but-" His voice broke slightly. "I'm so sorry about today. I didn't mean to hurt you- that's the last thing I want to ever do to you." I could tell he was crying. "I don't know if you could forgive me and I understand that. But just know that I'm here to talk. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you." I felt his hand set on top of mine. "Please don't hate me." I heard his light step trot out of the room again.

I did fall asleep before my parents came, I fell asleep surrounded by the smell of peppermint.


	4. Chapter 4

Once I was discharged from the hospital unit and a stern talk from both of my parents, I was allowed to leave and return to my normal schedule. The hospital staff had chalked it all up a minor psychotic break down. Both of my parents, who both knew what missions could do to you, let me have my space.

"We're here when you're ready to talk about it," My mom gathered me in a hug once I was up and moving. I rested my head against her cheek, I was a whole three inches taller than her but she still let me feel like a child when I needed to be one. They both settled me back into my room and then both of them took off for a surprise mission.

"You're sure that you don't feel like we're abandoning you again?" My mom half-joked but had a serious undertone. "We can get someone to cover it for us, Maria Hill still owes us a favor."

"I'll be fine, trust me." I urged them to go. It was odd, but going on missions together was bonding time for them and it had been several months since their last one.

"Were one phone call away," My father side hugged me. They both said their goodbyes and then hurried off to fight whoever this time.

I stood alone in my room feeling both safe but bare. My parents knew what was up- the knew something had happened on a mission I had pushed down and down. Now, it was starting to come back up. The sickening thing was; Peter still didn't know. It had been two days since the incident and knowing him- he was probably torturing himself about how he had hurt me when in reality he did nothing compared to what the man did.

Gathering up my courage and pushing down anxiety I went down the hall to Peter's room, the door was closed but I could hear faint sounds of a person behind them. I knocked.

The person who opened the door looked like a shell of who would be Peter Parker. His eyes were a hazy red and the bags under his eyes were a deep purple. He had a serious case of bed head and overall he just looked miserable.

"Flint…" He breathed between us.

"Peter," I tried to give a comforting smile. "Can I come in?" He moved to the side to let me see his messy room. I turned to him and for a second neither of us said anything. Then, I rushed forward and enveloped him in a hug. At first his body tensed, second or two passed and then he slowly wrapped his arms around me. His warmth relaxed every muscle in my body. He smelled more like sweat and stale air than his usual clean peppermint. "I'm okay." I managed to get out.

"I'm so sorry…" His voice was soft and low. "Whatever I did to you, know that I never wanted to hurt you. I haven't slept, eaten or really done anything." He squeezed a little tighter and then pulled back to look at my face. We were close enough to where I could see the thin beard he achieved in the two days of loathing.

"You did nothing wrong, I promise." I smiled. His eyes were glossy. "I had a flashback to a previous mission. It didn't go as planned and the guy…" I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Don't say anything unless you want to." Peter cooed. He brought me into another hug. I desperately wanted to stay in this hug forever. I felt safe, _wanted._

"I'm sorry I put you through all of this. And I don't hate you- I don't think I ever could." I admitted. "You're the closest thing I've ever had to a true friend." My heart danced in apprehension.

"Ned will probably be pissed if he ever finds out I said this but: you're probably one of my best friends." He joked. I returned a slight giggle seeing his funny and joking self-show itself again.

"As your best friend I do have to ask you to complete one task before we make it official," I proclaimed.

"Anything," Peter looked at me longingly. I stopped for a second to examine him- he really looked like he was about to do anything to prove himself. My chest felt tight and satisfied.

"Please go take a shower." I commanded sarcastically. Peter smiled, I walked out the door and out of the corner of my eye I swore his gaze lingered at me walking away.

After Peter and I officially started our best friend reign over the Avengers Headquarters I thought we were going to get some peace and quiet. Just train, have fun, go to our roof and enjoy being young adults with minimal supervision.

Boy does Tony like proving me wrong.

It wasn't but four days after the incident that Tony brought us both into his office.

"I'd like to send you two on a mission." Tony told us.

"Don't you usually ask us?" I spat at him with a smile.

"Usually I do mini-widow," Tony waited for me to roll my eyes- which I did. "However, this mission in particular I think would be good for both of you to start out as partners. It's not an impossible mission, but it a level up from what either of you two have done before and requires two people."

"And you chose us because?" I waited for an explanation.

Tony huffed having to actually compliment us. "It's because I think you two are ready. Peter has shown that he can not only handle himself in the battle field but I feel the need to give him his first Avenger-ish mission. And you because," He paused to look me up and down. "Because I think if you have even half of each of your parents' grit, stubbornness and skill in you- then you could take down a full grown man without even trying. Plus, Peter seems to try and do better in order to impress you. It's a good motivator." Tony winked at Peter.

"So what- what's the mission Mr. Stark?" Peter was nearly jumping out of his shoes to find out and to change the subject. His cheeks were a bright pink and he wouldn't make eye contact with me. I was secretly thankful, because if he had looked at me- he would have seen that despite my best efforts, my cheeks hinted at blushing.

"Around the country there have been a series of seemingly ordinary break-in to both banks and homes. _However_ , it's who these homes belong to and it's who these banks have accounts for that is the interesting part." Tony pulled out a series of files and laid them on his see-through desk for us to examine.

"First, was the home of Amelia Morse. Only a few expensive jewelry items were stolen, considering Amelia is 83 years old. However, due to her increasing memory failure, she wasn't sure what else they took. They did however discover that old files of her daughter were taken also."

"Bobbi Morse," I answered him. I remember my mom always being cold to Bobbi while my father was quiet fond. I heard a quick slip-up from my mother on one of her wine-drinking nights that Bobbi and my dad had a fling before he was paired up with my mom. Apparently Bobbi had never had Clint very far from her sights.

"Correct. SHIELD placed Bobbi in deep underground cover. Until we figure out what those document contain." Tony looked stressed which he rarely did. "Next, the First Bank of San Quentin of California was robbed and only one private box was broken into- Hank Pym's."

"The creator of the Pym particle." Peter sounded somewhere between excited, terrified and in awe.

"We contacted Pym and there was nothing in there besides he wedding ring and a few pieces of family heirlooms. Nothing regarding his research." Tony stood up and looked out the window behind his desk. It had a perfect view of the lawn with the jet ready for take-off in the left corner.

"So, all of these breaks in happened to either family members of SHIELD members or people who have helped you." My throat was tight speaking the words.

"Parents, advisors, inventors- all hit within two months of each other. Now, we have intel that they are going to be in New York City going to a bank that my father used to have a box stored in. Now, I know of the box, there is nothing in said box but it's good bait for the guy who are doing this." Tony glossed over talking about his father which he always did. I felt a pang of sympathy towards Tony whenever it came to his father. Despite forgiving Steve about knowing who killed his mother, Tony, in my opinion, would always hold that burden close to his heart.

"All I'm asking is for you guys to wait in the bank. Find them and bring them back here. And to show you my trust- I'm going to let you take the jet." The last part he sounded slightly reluctant on.

"No way." I excitedly ran over to the window. I had been training in simulators every other day for nearly 11 months in hopes to get to fly the jet one day. "I swear Tony if this is a joke, I will personally shave off your facial hair." I threatened.

Tony swiped his hand quickly over his chin and then smiled. "Nope, no joke. Be ready in 15- now shoo." He waved us away. I was nearly skipping down the hall when he let us go.

This felt like the only time in my life that 15 minutes had felt like seconds. Peter and I were ready and standing by the jet with 3 minutes to spare on our limit. We had changed, gathered gear and had met up in record time. Tony came out with Steve to see us off.

"You're sure you're okay flying this thing?" Steve asked me. It wasn't that he didn't think I could do it, but it was his father-like nature trying to take care of us showing through which was enduring.

"I got it Steve," I patted him before climbing onto the ramp. I turned back to wave.

"If we don't hear from you within 18 hours, we will send help." Tony called to us. We had all previously agreed that it would take at least 15 hours for the criminals to not only get into the bank without triggering any alarms but find Howard Stark's box and an extra three for us to fly back up here. Peter and I both waved as the door closed.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this." I eagerly said to Peter. Sitting down in the captain's chair I started pushing buttons and flipping switches like it was second nature. The engine roared to life and I saw Peter quickly find a seat and I couldn't help but laugh. It would take us just over 1.5 hours to get to New York.

"Your parents teach you?" Peter comfortably sat next to me in the co-pilots chair.

"My dad really. He usually takes care of the piloting cause the whole 'seeing from the distance' thing." I pulled up of the two handles in front of me and the air craft followed my command. I nearly felt the electricity course through my veins.

Ever since, _that_ mission, I had refrained from going on any solo mission- making excuses here and there. But I felt like if there was any mission to get back in the groove it was this one. I knew I had Peter's back and he had mine.

During the flight there we talked about nothing in particular, allowing the conversation to flow easily and naturally. Peter talked about what it was like to go to brainiac school and how it felt to see Tony Stark sitting in his living room one random afternoon. He talked about his (other) best friend Ned and how he used to spend night just watch Star Wars on the weekends and build Legos or work on whatever homework he had- now he was training with the Avengers and actually going on missions. I talked about my dad's stories of the circus and that's how his arrow ability really took form. I talked about my Uncle Barney and how he would always bring stray dogs home. At one point we had 7 dogs along with the two of us running around the house.

"Tony refuses to have a dog in the Avengers Headquarters. He thinks it would 'distract' from the training." I laughed. Despite the cabin being no bigger than a small college dorm room, it felt a whole larger with Peter with me.

"Well count me in on the 'Get a Dog in the Avengers Headquarters' petition." Peter giggled and leaned back in the chair all relaxed-like.

"So now it's me, you, Steve, Thor and my dad- hopefully that's enough to bring Tony around. Plus, he treats you like a son already." I joked.

"You think he treats me like a son?" Peter blushed slightly. I knew how much he admired Tony and knowing this information was probably stimulating.

"Totally." I turned to look out the window for a brief second, the once green landscape was now turning into more into an urban area- it wouldn't be too much longer before we arrived in New York City. "It's no secret that Tony didn't want to have kids after how distant and cold his father was to him and Pepper was fine with that. But, if I can be honest, I think once I came around and he really saw a child/parent relationship bonding that was filled with mutual respect- I figured that he wanted to find a son relationship with someone before it was too late. Despite what he might seem like, Tony really cares about you deeply." I admitted. Peter fidgeted in delight for a brief second.

"The feeling is mutual," He whispered mostly to himself.

"Hey Peter," I flicked my head towards the window and in the distance we saw the outline of New York.

The Empire State Building was just as classic as all of the pictures had made it out to be. The iconic outline glowed in the distance causing my pulse to quicken. The Avengers Tower that had been the center of the Battle of New York had also made its own place in the famous skyline.

Even looking down at what most people would consider the mundane part of New York, my senses seemed to heightened- looking at a teenage girl walking her dog, seeing a man arguing with a tow truck man and a woman pulling a wagon with her son behind her. I had never seen so many people bustling about.

The craft automatically headed towards the Avengers Tower were Happy, Tony's assistant was waiting for us. Happy's smile got a little tenser once he saw Peter exit the jet behind me; from the limited history I got from Peter apparently Happy owed keeping his job to Peter.

"Tony left you guys some upgrades," Happy walked with us into the tower not wasting a moment. Walking into the common room that overlooked the city with nearly all of the walls being glass- in the middle room were two suitcases.

Immediately I could tell that the black case was mine, Tony had taken the liberty to scribble the word _Spawn_ across the front with vibrant blue sharpie. Peter's on the other hand had his web design on the front.

"Suit up," I smiled at Peter. "First of many."

With that we suited up for what could have possible been our last first mission together ever.


	5. Chapter 5

Now, I had never been one for new cloths; Uncle Barney used to give me my dad's kid hammy downs which mostly consisted of giant flannels and overalls and dirty boots. However, putting one Tony's custom made suit for me felt like taking a cleansing shower, refreshing. The custom made material seemed to mesh perfectly over my body, even covering my mother's curves I had inherited. The suit was all black except a blue streak that cut across the chest. At the bottom of the case had laid a note.

 _Upgrade mini-widow,_ _isn't it time for a code name?_ Next to it laid a hand-held cross bow gun. On the side, the word _Blackhawk,_ was laser engraved into the handle. Beside that laid about two dozen arrows that all had little labels on them describing what they did. Even before meeting my dad, Uncle Barney had forced me to become handy with a bow- probably wanting me to pick up the family business. Even with my archery skills, I found a cross bow more convenient.

"Seems fitting," I smirked to myself. The bow attached to the mount seemed to fold in on itself making the weapon that much more efficient to carry around. My belt also seemed to have a personal clip for my new toy. "You really outdid yourself Tony." I laugh.

Walking out of the changing room I found that Peter was already waiting for me with his new suit on except his mask so I could still see his tasseled chocolate hair. He saw me coming out of the room, his face flushed a bright shade of pink before turning away quickly.

"Well don't you just look dashing?" I joked. I couldn't help but feel a quick wave of heat floor my face. I breathed took a quick deep breath and tried to think of anything besides how Peter's suit showed off his lean figure, fitting every curve of his muscles with precision.

"You… you look- alright as well." Peter stared but quickly realized what words had actually come out of his mouth. "I mean; you more look more than alright. Awesome actually, like in a deadly sort of way. That was too brash, I mean the suit suits you. But that makes sense because it's designed for you. You just look really good." Peter tripped over his words trying to find the footing he wanted.

I couldn't stop the tightening in my chest for forming. A mix of anxiety and excitement shot through my body causing my senses to heightened. Peter smiled wide and for a second we just seemed to drink in each other's presence.

"Alright, this is getting weird." Happy interrupted. "Survive this mission kid," Referring to Peter. "and you'll deserve a kiss from her. Just don't let Clint or Natasha know because they will both kill you and it'll be equally as painful."

We both tensed up at the mention of us kissing. I opened up my mouth to say something witty or object but Happy was already walking away. I glanced at Peter who seemed to be having a staring contest with the floor. I walked off to follow Happy and I heard Peter pick his own feet up and follow.

"You'll be going to the First Bank of New York. You'll stay there until whoever is breaking into the banks. You'll do battle or whatever," Happy waved his hand for exaggeration. "then you'll call for us to come get you. Understood?" Peter and I nodded in unison.

"Understood," We replied in unison. A swell of determination filled my chest, but there was something else lingering underneath. I couldn't quiet put my finger on it but I refused to look at Peter.

Happy sent us down to the bottom of Avengers Tower and out onto the street where a normal black car was waiting for us. Before stepping in the car I craned my neck to look around at all of the buildings standing over us. They looked as if they were bending towards one way, just seconds from tipping over.

"Neat isn't it?" Peter stuck his head out of the doorway to the car.

"It's marvelous," I managed to stammer. Never in my life had I seen so many tall buildings, the air was filled with sound that it seemed to have no end; car engines, car horns, dogs barking, people talking to each other or one the phone, the distant sound of a police siren.

"Common," Peter gestured his head to the car. I kept my eyes searching around the city until the car door was closed. The tinted windows kept the car dark and the full blast AC on the inside didn't help.

Goosebumps started to cover my body, it was probably a mix between the anxiety, excitement, unsureness and the chill in the car. I felt Peter shift in his seat a little bit, he ended up closer to me and I felt his suit brush against my arm. He had taken off his mask which he had put on when he entered the car and was looking ahead rather intently.

"I heard you," I suddenly blurted out. My eyes grew big and Peter snapped his head to look at me. Now I was the one having a staring contest with the floor of the car.

 _What the actual fuck Flint._ I yelled at myself in my head. What had possessed me long enough to blurt out those words I may never know- but now there were the repercussions of the statement.

"You heard what?" Peter seemed legitimacy confused.

I opened my mouth and closed it again. The fear inside of me had taken the reigns. What would he say when he figured out I heard what he said in the hospital? Would he be angry when I didn't respond or acknowledge his gesture?

"Flint?" He urged.

"The night, after our training session; I was about to sleep when I heard you come in… I heard what you said to me." I kept my head down in shame. "I didn't know what to say so I just kept quiet. Please don't be mad." I pleaded.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Peter's face grow tight. My gut twisted in preparation for him to be angry with me. Then his soft hand laid on my shoulder, slightly turning me. I allowed myself to follow his hand until my torso was facing his. I finally looked up at him and for a second nothing was said. Then he enveloped me in a hug. The heat from his body relaxed mine and the smell of peppermint filled my nose. I returned his hug and buried my head in his neck.

"I meant what I said." He whispered only to me. "I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you again."

After he let me go with the hug his body stayed close. Our arms were touching their entire length, even though there were two layers separating our skin I felt the warmth of his body. I silently thanked that there was a black window separating us from the driver.

We filled the next several minutes with talking about the mission and our theories about who would steal SHIELD information.

"There's no way it's the Vulture." He stated. "He's been behind bars for years and there's no way his goons are _that_ loyal."

"You did not just say the word goon," I laughed. "you sound like an 80s cartoon villain." I gave him a nudge.

"Alright, what would you call them?" Peter smirked.

"Henchmen obviously," I shrugged, half-joking.

"That's just as bad as goons!" Peter exclaimed.

"No- it's sounds more evil-y." I teased. My entire body was vibrating with happy energy; it had been years since I joked this easily with someone.

The car suddenly came to a startling halt which caused both Peter and I to lunge forward. The fun and relaxed atmosphere suddenly turned a bit more tensed. I opened the car door and before us stood a large, stereotypical bank- gray exterior with long windows that gave us a look at the fancy interior.

The black car pulled away leaving us alone on the sidewalk. Together we walked in the bank; the white marble was almost painful to look at, the giant chandlers hung from the ceilings witch white columns lining the corners of the room.

"Tony's dad had a taste," Peter whispered to me. To the left were cubicles, to the right were a series of private offices with unmarked doors and right in front was a grand wooden desk with tellers behind vintage iron-framed windows.

As we walked to the desk, there were more than a few stares that followed them. Some elderly people looked displeased and giving both Peter and I side eyes. A child gasp at the sight of Spider-Man and quickly ran up to Peter who promptly gave him a high five and signed the boys red baseball cap.

"Your fans are cute," I said seriously.

"I was just like them when I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Iron Man." Peter confessed. I could tell that under his mask he was smiling.

"Really?" I pried.

"Yep, he was everything I wanted to be. It's kind of a funny story- I was at the Stark Expo when I was younger with my parents who worked with his type of technology…"

"With the controlled military bots," I remembered the incident well. Uncle Barney and I sat in front of the TV watching as all the events unfolded. I heard him mumble the word 'Natasha'. At the time I didn't pay much attention to it, but once I found out who my parents were- it made since that he would be worried about my mom who was at that event.

"Yeah, well I had my own Iron mask and hand laser or whatever- one of the bots came up and was going to shoot me. Tony as Iron Man at the time swooped down and shot him before the bot could kill me. He told me: 'Good work kid' and from then on I wanted to prove to Iron Man that I was hero material. Given I didn't think I would be bitten by a radioactive spider and become who I am, but I want to make him proud." Peter whispered as we made it to the desk.

Before I could respond a teller came up to us. "I'm guessing you're who the Avengers sent," She was younger, maybe in her early 30s- pretty black hair with dark eyebrows, coffee eyes and a friendly face.

"Is it that obvious?" Peter joked. The woman gave a smile.

"Follow me," She motioned her head to the right. We walked parallel to her until we got to a doorway that allowed us to step behind the counter. We then followed her to an unmarked door behind the desk.

I felt my body eager to complete a mission- it had been too long. I needed to prove it to myself again that I could complete a mission.

 _Nothing bad is going to happen this time._ I repeated in my head. _Peter is with you and he promised nothing bad is going to happen to you._

I controlled my breathing as we walked down the plain hallway. Peter seemed to restrain himself to keeping a normal pace- I could feel his excitement radiating off him.

After a couple minutes of walking in silence we came to a metal door with a keypad to the side. The woman swiftly typed in a security code and then placed her thumb on a small screen to the side. The door made a squealing sound and then the door slightly popped open. The woman pulled it open to reveal a huge room with hundreds of small gray boxes embedded into the walls.

"Mr. Starks is number 103. Our security system will be on; I don't have a high enough pay grade to tell me the entire story- only that a couple of Avengers will be here and to expect some damage when I return tomorrow." The woman smiled politely, I could tell she was out of her element.

"We appreciate it," I spoke for both Peter and I. "thank you." She nodded, closed the door sealing us in the metal room.

The weight of the mission suddenly seemed to weigh on me. This might just be petty theft in coincident places but my gut told me this was something more. Peter started looking at the walls trying to find Tony's box.

"These go all the way up to the thousands," Peter stated. The eyes of his suit squinted.

"I guess Howard was one of the first to get a box." I suggested. "I'm guessing it further towards the back."

I started towards further back. It seemed improbable that a bank seemed to have this many boxes in the back. Peter decided to show off and while I was stuck with walking on the ground he decided to climb along the wall of boxes.

"Show off," I snickered. I could tell was smirking underneath the mask.

"It's fun," Peter laughed. I couldn't help but smile back at him much to my dismay.

Finally, they reached the back wall, the metal boxes were lined from the ceiling to the floor and the entire width of the large room. Quickly scanning the wall, I found the box that belonged to Tony, tapping it for emphases.

"Now what?" Peter jumped down from the wall standing beside me. It wasn't until this moment that I realized how much taller he was than me.

"I guess we wait." I slid down on the wall finally resting on the floor. "Whoever is taking the boxes will most likely not come until after the bank is close so we have another hour or so."

Peter sat on the ground with me and for a second we just stared down the hallway from where we had come.

"Do you like being an Avenger?" Peter asked breaking the silence.

"Do I like being an Avenger?" I repeated the question. Peter nodded. "I mean… I have my parents back; I have people looking out for me." I started smiling. "I have Vision who helps me with some online college courses because my parents insist I take them. I have Thor to chow down and watch Cup Cake Wars; Bruce to help me with my homework, Tony to get into shenanigans, Wanda- despite our differences, we like to have girl time and just have bitch sessions." I smiled at the memories that washed over me in a warm wave.

"Being an Avenger has its perks…" I started.

"But?" Peter picked up on my hesitation.

"I mean, being 'normal' for so long and being thrusted into this world where everything just seems so big. The things that I know, what I've heard that my friends and my parents have gone through- some of it would send people to the nut house." I sighed at the end of my explanation. "Sorry," I apologized. "I love being an Avenger, but it's not without its cons."

"I understand," Peter mumbled. "I mean, I love being Spiderman, helping people and making the world a better place," Peter stopped for a second. My guess was that he was thinking about his parents and his uncle. "But at the same time, I don't want to leave Aunt May. She has lost so much and I know if anything happened to me…" Peter didn't finish the sentence.

Not really knowing what to say we sat in silence. I noticed how his eye flickered over to me every once in a while, I acted like I didn't notice.

"Do you want to know?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Know about what?"

"Why I freaked out during training?"

"Flint… you don't have to say anything about it," Peter assured me.

"I know I don't," I looked at him. "I want to tell you."

For a second I opened my mouth before there was the sound of glass breaking rattling throughout the room. Both Peter and I sprung up battle read. His mask eyes indicating that he was scanning the room and my weapons at the ready.

There was more silence for a couple more seconds before crashing came from one of the rows of the boxes. Bracing ourselves we were about to see I prepared myself to fight through a slew of bad guys or goons as Peter would called them. What I did see however, chilled me to the bone.

A man, levitating off the ground came towards us. He was mid-40s maybe and his eyes were crazed. He was slightly overweight and wore a green trench coat. The most disturbing part was what was coming out of the trench coat- four, long metal arms that moved just as easily as snakes carried him, punching into the ground and into the metal boxes.

"Doctor Octavius?" Peter whispered to himself.

The mean looked down at us, obviously smiling at some sort of inside joke or another.

"Hello Peter," The man's greeted in a sinister and haunting voice.

All I heard was the sound of metal moving before I slammed against the wall effectively blacking out.


	6. Chapter 6

***WARNING GUYS: hey guys this chapter does have preludes to sexual assault. nothing specific is stated but if anyone doesn't like to read about** **insinuating sexual assault you may want to skip this chapter love yall***

I felt the hard ground before I opened my eyes. The gravel poked into my skin, my muscles were burning and were reluctant to move. My throat was dry and hoarse. Finally, I opened my eyes. The room was solid gray, concrete everywhere- chains hanging off of the walls.

I automatically realized I didn't see Peter which sent terror up my spine. He had recognized the man with the metals arms in the bank and the metal arm man seemed to know Peter as well saying his name rather than calling him Spider-Man. Knowing someone's real name was a powerful weapon- something that could be used to destroy their life- find out where they live, where they go to school, their family and so much more.

I forced myself up. My bones scraped against each other and my headed pounded. Looking down my hands and feet were chained to the nearby wall. I could only move a few feet, not that those few feet didn't help. The only thing breaking the constant concrete room was a small, thin metal door on the opposite side of the room.

Reaching down to my legs I gritted my teeth, the bastard had taken all of my gear. I was naked without anything; no powers, no magic hammer like Thor, no secret alter ego that is stronger than basically anything on Earth like Hulk, I didn't have weird powers like Wanda- I didn't have anything. I was just as vulnerable as I was on that mission.

 _We aren't doing this right now._ I scolded in my head. Although the similarities were hard to ignore. The concrete room… the chains… being basically naked without anything to defend myself.

 _Stop!_ I yelled at myself this time. I needed to get out, I needed to find Peter.

The door at that moment swung open with a bang. A man, not the one with the metal arms came in- face stoic.

He came towards me with no expression. Jumping up automatically knowing that there was no way to beat this guy. A whole head taller than me and significantly broader, not only that but my body still seemed to be in no fighting conditions.

The man moved closer as I moved back. He reached into his pocket and brought out a small key. He lunged at me with a sinister smile on his face causing me to flinch backwards.

While reaching out and grabbing my one of my wrists firmly he bent down and started to unlock the shackles. I didn't move- I couldn't move. My mind was shorting out, like all of the wires in my brain were suddenly on the fritz.

Suddenly I was being dragged out of the room. Tripping over myself once or twice. I memorized the path we took, straight passed two lefts, right, left and left again. I took notice of the hallway. There were pipes everywhere indicating we were underground or at least in a basement. Pipes along the wall and running along the ceiling.

At the end of the hallway as another metal door. The man opened it with ease and I was thrown inside. Luckily I caught myself before I hit the floor but stumbled a few feet to the side.

I looked around and drew a quick gasp at what I saw.

Peter was laying on the ground, bloody with his mask lying beside him. His face was bruised and swollen. He wasn't moving but I could see slight breathing. Automatically I lunged towards him but was interrupted by a large metal arm cutting me off.

"Greetings young lady," The man, who I now knew was Doctor Octavius smiled at him, which was very unsettling. His smile was wide and slightly crazed… my mind drifted…

 _NO._ I mentally scolded. I needed to not think- I needed to get out of my head.

"Doctor Octavius I imagine," I sneered, checking on Peter he still didn't make any movement.

"How did studious Peter Parker end up with a doll like you?" The doctor smiled still and circled around me with two extra arms hovering above me seeing if I would make any sort of movement towards Peter.

"How did an apparent doctor like yourself fall from his profession and end up getting four metals snakes sticking out of his back?" I shot back. The two upper metal arms seemed to react, they move swiftly and hovered in front of my face with the claws snapping at me.

Doctor Octavius's face suddenly grew hard; his sinister smile was gone. "I wouldn't be too quick to talk girl," He took a good look at me. I could tell my face was swollen in some areas. "I feel like I've seen you before."

"Can't say I've had the same displeasure of seeing yours," I smiled to myself. I wouldn't let him break me, not when Peter needed me. I wasn't going to let anything bad happen to him either. I looked the man up and down. "You look like a mutant octopus."

The Doctor looked at me for one more second, ignoring my insult. "Yes, I know you… you're the new one they found." I tensed. Yes, everyone did know who I was- a new training Avenger, but that was mainly all the information the outside world had. SHIELD had my name, birth records, where I lived, who my parents were under wraps, his leading voice scared me.

"Yeah, the one they found in Illinois, Hawkeye's daughter right? Might I saw I'm glad you inherited some of Black Widow's features,"

"Get fucked."

"You've been out of combat for a while now haven't you," He smiled. My mind started to vibrate, thoughts were coming and going in my head faster than I could comprehend yet my body stayed still. "Yes, I remember a rumor going around…"

"Enough," A voice interrupted the room. Both of us looking over, I saw Peter- struggling, but still standing up, his mask being held in one hand. His suit was torn in several locations. I wasn't sure how it affected his suit's tech but Peter could still hold his own even without Stark's super-tech.

"Ah Peter glad for you to join us," Doctor Octavius turned his attention towards Peter. "Glad you could join us; I'm surprised it took you this long. You were never late to class?"

"Class?" I muttered mostly to myself.

"Peter didn't tell you?" The Doctor scoffed. "Peter was one of my students in school, one of my best actually. He was particularly helpful when it came to sustaining fusion theoretical experiments."

"Doctor Octavius, what- what happened to you?" Peter said in a pained voice. His face was pleading and seemed sad. "You were a scientist, a doctor, someone we all looked up to," He limped forward. I leaned towards him before an arm cut me off snapping.

"I learned Peter," Doctor Octavius seemed to be focused on Peter while each arm seemed to be doing something individually.

"The arms… they weren't that powerful when we used them. How- how did they…?"

"Become this? After you left and school was let out for the summer, I studied. I studied and worked as hard as I could. With some of the hypothesis that the class put together- that _you_ helped put together I was able to create these arms," He gestured to the arms and talked about them like they were people. "Well, the experiment went sideways and I had the arms on. But Peter, something remarkable happened. The experiment, though went awry somehow fused the mechanics of this into my nervous system. They are me, but they are their own beings too."

"I helped you because I thought it was the right thing to do," Peter looked like a beaten dog. He seemed so confused.

"It will help Peter, it will bring on a new age of people, think about the possibilities."

"This isn't you." Peter's voice was tight. "You're a good man. You have a career, respected by a whole community and a wife,"

"Not anymore," Doctor Octavius was quick and one of his arms extended out towards Peter in caution. "I preformed the experiment for several close faculty members and my wife because she was so proud of me," He spat bitterly. "The experiment injured most and killed her. My beautiful Rosaline,"

"I'm sorry," Peter seemed sincere. "But she wouldn't want you doing this," Peter seemed to be working his charm to try and level with the doctor. Suddenly the top right arm shot out and grabbed Peter by the neck before either of us could move.

Peter gasped as tore at the metal arm as he was lifted off of the ground by the arm. I lunged towards him but the other caught me by the braid I was wearing pulling me back with a tug.

"Knowing my Rosaline I know she would have preferred to be alive. She loved living; going to the park, she liked going to the theater and teaching." Doctors Octavius nearly yelled. "I could have used better technology, better documents to help my research; I asked repeatedly for that Tony Stark to help me get important documents. My technology could have taken his and brought it to the next level- but he wouldn't have it.

"I needed all the information I could get- I didn't care how I got it. If taking everything from every agent was the solution, then I would. You have no idea how long it took me to find out where Stark's box was- then having if filled with useless items? I thought Tony needed to feel the pain that I felt. It's no secret Tony prefers you," He looked at Peter with a sort of high power yet envious look. "You," He looked at me. "Were a just a perk. I know someone who is going to be very happy to see you,"

My body shuttered. My adrenaline started pumping.

"You _sick_ bastard." I tore my arm away from the metal claw. I felt the gashes it produced.

"It pays to get all the allies you can," Doctor Octavius smiled.

"You'll have to kill me before you take me back," I stumbled backwards. My eye furiously looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. There were some broken wooden planks to the side, a small chain, plus a table and chair- nothing screamed weapon to me.

"Or kill him," Doctor Octavius held out Peter still hanging from his claw. Peter was a slight purple color now; I knew his body could put up with more damage than a regular human but I didn't want to test it. "You know who I need, and he has a very specific set of skills that would be beneficial for me to use. I need those documents. I need to reproduce the experiment so I am the result every time. _You_ are the key to Kilgrave. Come with me and I'll let Peter live."

I sucked in my breath. I looked at Peter, our eyes met and I knew what he would say. He would yell at me not to do it; he would get us out of this somehow but I knew he wasn't in any fighting condition. My body started to shake, I heard Kilgrave's breath in my ear, I felt his skin against mine, I felt his hands gliding over my body.

"Deal," I stammered. "Let him go,"

Doctor Octavius smiled. The metal claw opened up and Peter fell in a heap to the ground. He started gasping and chocking but still seemed to try and stand up.

"Flint… please… I'm not letting you…" He coughed up a bit of blood.

"Out of the things I know better than people there is one I take pride in," The metaled armed man walked over to me and met my eyes. "I know what love looks like and how to extort it."

Two metal arms wrapped around me, securing my arms to my side and my legs together. The sheer strength surprised me as I felt my chest struggle with the amount of force being exerted onto it.

There were a few slight sounds coming from behind me. I craned my head to see Peter kneeling trying to get up, spitting web after web towards us. I thought I heard him mumble under his breath about something being broken.

"I don't want to hurt you any more Parker," Doctor Octavius stated walked out on the other two robotic arms.

"I'd beg a differ." Peter commented. I could see of the Doctor's shoulder Peter putting on his mask and spitting webs all around him. I was always surprised about how agile he was and how quickly he moved.

The webs had little physical effect on the doctor but seemed to be more of an annoyance. The Doctor gritted his teeth and lowered himself to the ground so his two extra arms could fight Peter. As Peter weaved and dodged the arms, shooting webs at them I tried to wiggle out of the arms that held me.

I struggled. Everything inside of me didn't want to go back to Kilgrave. To go back under his control again, to be completely at his will and do whatever he said even though every fiber of my body was fighting against him… I made a promise I would kill myself before going back to him.

"Peter!" I screamed. I felt the arms growing tighter, crushing my chest.

Peter seemed to hear me. He shot a flurry of webs towards the Doctor's face and when he was distracted shot a web that connected with one of the metal arms. He jumped and landed on the wall and pulled. The web tightened with tension and slowly I heard metal creaking. The arm came off me just enough to get my arm out and push against the metal.

My muscles were sore beyond comprehensions and pushing against a seemingly living metal arm doesn't really help. I took all the anger, all of the burning hatred I had kept going inside of me since meeting Kilgrave and used it to push against the arm. My arms screamed and I felt the folding segments of the arm cut into me.

I gave one final push and the arm finally let up. I thrusted my body downwards and with some effort slipped my legs out of the second arm. I heard Doctor Octavius yell out in frustration and send all of his arms towards us.

I gave Peter a side smile and together we both ducked, weaved and dodged the arms with ease. We were perfectly in sync. He used his webs to cause the arms to stick to the wall and floors for several seconds and I went towards Doctor Octavius and swept his legs. It seemed the arms were his really only defense, other than that he wasn't really combat trained which was a lucky break for us.

I eyed Peter who was on the ceiling at the moment. I nodded over to the chain on the ground. There was no way this could hold the metal arms but it could hold a human easily.

It was like we were reading each other's minds. I wondered if this is how my mom and dad felt on missions; knowing what the other person is doing, knowing their next move even before they preform it.

I ran and threw myself to the right missing the claw of an arm by inches, I heard the mechanical gears turning within. I grabbed the chain and did a hairpin turn towards the monster. Peter was hanging from the ceiling and with an encouraging nod from me, rapidly shot his webs, covering the Doctor's face and some of the arms. I ran quickly, wrapping the chain around the Doctor and securing it the best I could with all the strength I had left. I gave a heft push and the Doctor fell- not defeated but definitely disabled for a minutes.

"Flint," I heard Peter call my name as he descended from the ceiling. We both knew what we had to do. We ran as best as we could. Opening the door and sprinting down the hall (well limping really), we took out some meaningless body guards. Peter shooting them in the face with a web and I would slid under them wiping out their feet.

I knew the room I was originally held in had no way out so we were stuck in hallways that gave no indication on where they would go. We ran down some that ended in dead ends and other that ended in empty room. I knew we couldn't take much more. I could hear Peter's breathing, ragged and broken.

Out of now where Peter fell to the ground and pulled backwards. I saw a metal claw clasping around his foot.

"Peter!" I yelled. I ran without a second thought. I didn't care about how much my arms throbbed or how my leg was at least fractured- I wasn't leaving without Peter.

He was only a few feet in front of me but he was moving faster- I was going to lose them in the endless maze. I dove in a last ditch effort; I caught his hand barely. For several feet both of us were being dragged along the ground, screaming incoherently. Through the dust flying in my eyes I saw an object on the side of the hallway. Not really knowing what it was I reached out and my hand grabbed onto an old rusted pipe.

Holding on to the pipe and Peter my arm nearly ripped out of my socket, I screamed.

"Flint," I heard my name somehow over the sound of blood pumping through my head. I looked down at Peter, my vision was red. "Let go,"

"Like hell," I managed to mutter out. "I'm not letting him take you,"

"Please I have an idea," Peter pleaded, his voice was tired but enduring. "Let go of the pipe." I looked at Peter. I knew I could trust him but my body didn't respond. After taking a breath I let my grip loosen on the pipe and suddenly we were being dragged again.

With one arm Peter clung onto me as we turned a corner. At the end I could see the faint outline of Doctor Octavius. I closed my eyes. This was either going to end with pain or me going back to Kilgrave, neither I wanted to see.

I hear the faint shot of a web and being thrusted up. I forced myself to open my eyes and saw that Peter's leg was free- but not without harm. The entire foot of the Spider-Man suit was torn off and Peter's foot was covered in blood.

From what I could see, Peter seemed to have shot a web at the last second and pulled us upward towards the ceiling causing Doctor Octavius to fall backwards and Peter's foot was ripped out of the claw as a result.

I got up and saw the agony Peter was in. We were in a place beyond screaming of pain. He was gritting his teeth and his breath was shaky.

I put Peter's arm over my shoulder and ran down the hall. In the distance I saw a door- any door would be fine by my standards now. Peter was limping along with one foot as we got towards the door. I could see the doorframe. We made it- we did it!

If only those three seconds had been the end of it.

I felt Peter tore out from under my arm. Doctor Octavius, he looked unnatural, a wild animal driven mad. Peter looked like a dead body. Hanging by the piece of suit the Doctor held in his metal claws.

"Come here girl," The Doctor screamed. "Kilgrave needs his toy."

"Flint run! You have to get out of here! I won't lose you too." Peter called out in a desperate weak voice.

My eyes were only focused on Peter. He looked nothing like he was supposed to. His face was pale covered in blood, bruises, swelling and other discoloration. His suit was in tatters, just hanging off of his body. His hair was messy and gross. I couldn't smell anymore peppermint.

I thought on my feet. "Do you really need him?" I asked. Luckily I had inherited my mother's charm and quick thinking.

"Don't play you stupid girl,

"No seriously, why do you need him? You need me."

"Like you would work me."

I took a breath. It seemed silly to get emotional in a dire situation but you can't pick your life. "Like you said, you know what love looks like." I didn't dare look at Peter. "And you know how to exploit it. You let Peter live, and I will go with you- freely. I am the daughter of Hawkeye and Black Widow, both on their own are dangerous- together unstoppable. I know more SHIELD intel than they know, I'm an expert code cracker and I can help you get those files to do your research."

Doctor Octavius looked at me up and down. Given, it wasn't the best plan but I made what I could with limited time.

"Come here girl," I walked over to the man holding my best friend like a rag doll. "If you betray me, ever. I will call Kilgrave and hand you over to him; and you know what he will do with you."

I felt my body tingle in disgust. I lowered my head slightly.

"I promise," I whispered.

"Flint," Peter muttered.

Octavius dropped Peter who fell into a heap- not even trying to stop himself. The sight sickened me. I walked over past Peter who looked up at me with a defeated look. I flicked my eyes upwards hoping he knew what I meant. His eyebrows cocked a little bit but I continued to move, I couldn't tip off Octavius my plan.

I stood by the Doctor and looked towards Peter. He forced himself on his back and was struggling to sit up. Doctor Octavius put his hand on my shoulder and rubbed his thumb over it which made me sickened to my stomach.

Leaning down he whispered in my ear, "Kilgrave can also give me anything _I_ want." My body twitched, my eyes grew big. I shot a quick glance at Peter who nodded his head.

"Now," I yelled and jumped backwards. Peter shot up a web attaching to a large pipe was running above it. I heard the Doctor scream, I grasped onto the web and with a yank both Peter and I tore down a large pipe which fell on top of Octavius's head. He stumbled obviously hurt. I picked up the large pipe that rattled on the ground and without a second to spare I slammed the pipe in the back of his head.

Crumbling to the ground the body of Doctor Octavius was decapitated but the arms were still moving. They all snapped at me with their claws- only swatting at them with the pipe seemed to keep me safe.

There was a crash at the end of the hallway.

"Stand down," I heard Iron Man's voice come from the shattered door.

I don't know if it was seeing Iron Man, finally knowing Peter was safe or if my body was just finally done but at that moment I collapsed. The last thing I saw was Peter smiling at me before blackness surrounded me.


	7. Chapter 7

**WARNING: this chapter does include text about rape. it doesn't go into horrific detail but it is mention and is given a non-detail account. if there any people out there who do not want to read anything related to sexual assault please skip the confession/ explaining part of the chapter. i love yall and please if you need help reach out and get it. 3 **

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My body was on fire. My veins were pumping lava instead of blood. My muscles were burning with acid inside of them, my lungs were struggling for breath since they felt like they were touching fire as they inhaled.

There was only white around me. Light seemed to be illuminating everywhere. Voices were being muffled by the ringing in my ears. My eyes felt heavy as I tried to look around the room but my body wouldn't respond.

"Peter," I felt his name slip between my chapped lips. From what my eyes were telling me I couldn't see him. Everything was blurring together.

"Flint?" I thought I heard my name. It sounded far away like it was behind glass. My limited vision showed me a dark figure coming towards me. I perked up immediately- thinking the worst.

I bolted up ready to fight.

 _Not Kilgrave. Not Kilgrave. Not Kilgrave._ I started to panic. My mind was static and I couldn't think straight. I pulled against the wires and tubes around me despite the pain that it caused. I screamed, cursing to high heaven.

"Flint! Flint!" The voice wasn't Kilgrave's. His was full of intention and cockiness.

My mother came into view. Her voice was soft and leveled. Her red hair was pulled up in a bun, her eyes were big with worry.

"Mom?" I breathed out harshly. My vision was clear I could see everything around me. I was in the Avenger's Headquarter infirmary. My mother was in front of me, near the back of the room my dad stood looking like he was biting on his lip as hard as he could.

"You're safe Flint." My mother assured me before anything else.

"It wasn't what Tony thought… there was more Doctor Octavius." I tried to explain what had just happened.

"We know," My mother placed her hand on mine. "Trust me once your father found out about what you went through; I could barely get him off from beating Tony." She tried to make me smile.

"Peter…" I whispered, anxiety ran through my body. "Where's Peter?"

My mom looked back at my dad and they shared a look. After being not only together but also friends and partners for so many years, they could probably have a whole conversation just by the slightest of different facial expressions they gave each other.

"Where's Peter?" I said more angrily.

"Flint," My father came forward. "You took a quiet a beating, you don't need to stress yourself."

"Don't talk to me like that," I spat. I rarely ever got short or angry in general with my parents, after so many years of missing them I didn't want to waste time I did have now being angry. "I don't care what either of you think about him. I would have died if it wasn't for Peter. I know you two care more each other's wellbeing than your won and know I'm asking you- _where is Peter?_ "

For a second they sat in silence, again looking at each other; I could read this expression and them understanding what I was going through.

"Don't look at me, stubbornness was the quality you passed on," My mother joked towards my father who smiled. She then turned to me with a more serious look. "Peter, took more of a hit than you," I didn't particularly like the sound of that because of the number of machines I was currently hooked up to. "He's in critical condition. Both of you have been out for about a day now."

My chest tightened. It seemed insane that a person that I met just a week ago would mean so much to me. If I lost Peter- I don't know how I would function.

Without another word I tore out everything that was attached to me. My parents frantically tried to talk me out of it but I couldn't hear them. My ears were ringing and I only thought of Peter. Pushing past them I jumped out of bed and ran down the hall as fast I could. I pushed past nurses.

I passed each room and looked in the window. Each failed room made my heart sink lower. I wanted to scream, I wanted to tear everything off of the walls. I final looked through one of the lasts room and my heart stopped. There he was.

I entered the room quickly and silently. I stood at the foot of the bed looking up him. The swelling in his face had gone down a little bit but he still looked weird. He had gashes bandaged up and bruises covering his face.

There seemed to be machines doing every possible body function for him. He looked too pale, the smell of peppermint that usually surrounded him was now just the smell of latex and chemicals. I forced myself to walk up to his bed.

"Peter," I whispered. Nothing- not even the flutter of an eye. I felt hot tears form in my eyes.

"Peter I'm so sorry," I cried. I sank down onto my knees and cried into the bed. I was his partner; I was supposed to look after him. He was barely trained as an Avenger- I had been here for months, he was my responsibility and I failed him in the worse kind of way.

Tony had come and visited several times, sometimes staying hours on end. We didn't talk much, not that either of us was in a talking mood. There were times when he thought he would wake up. There was a stir in his sleep, he groaned or his eyes fluttered but up until this point they had all been in vain.

The doctors would come in and check in on his condition. I constantly asked them about his condition which didn't seem to change. Every time my heart seemed to rip itself apart with guilt and a load of other emotions I didn't have the energy to sort through. I felt like a ghost of my past self- just the shell of who I used to be.

The days seemed to drag by but yet fly by. The hours sitting there seemed like eternity but at the same time, the day would go by so quickly because I wouldn't let myself do anything else but sit and wait.

It was on the fifth day after our mission that someone really tried to push me out of the room.

"Flint you have to get out of the room," It was Tony who spoke to me. "This isn't on you- it's on me. I'm the one that signed him up."

"You weren't the one that saw him get chocked, you didn't seem him look so defeated. You didn't see what I did." I said plainly. My hair was in knots from being put up and taken down without any brushing.

"Flint, if there is any change you'll be the first to know," Tony promised.

"Not interested." I shot back with some bitterness. "Would you ever leave Rhodes?"

I took Tony's silence was his defeat. He left a sandwich for me, I took a bite but there was no flavor. I ended up spitting it out and throwing the rest away.

That night I couldn't sleep. It seemed to happen every other night. One night I would sleep like the dead and the other my body wouldn't allow itself to sleep a wink. Sadly, I was up into the late hours of the night.

I stared at Peter and something took over my body. I got up and walked over to the bed; during the past days I had been reluctant to touch him because of his fragile state but now, all I wanted to is be near him.

I knelt down by the bed and rested my head on the edge. I placed my hand on top of his hand, there was no reaction whatsoever.

"Peter," I muttered quietly. Deep down my hope of getting a reaction was quickly thwarted. Still no movement.

"I just wanted to say thank you. I don't I even thanked you for saving my life. You know I would have died if you hadn't been there? You kept your promise." I felt my throat grow tight. "My only guilt is that I didn't keep mine about keeping you safe." I looked at him. "Also, I said I wanted to tell you about what happened to me and I think this is the only time I'll ever fully talk it out. I don't know if you can hear me but I'm going to tell you anyway." I already had tears rolling down my eyes but I needed to talk about that mission.

"When I started doing missions Tony gave me pretty simple ones. Taking down some drug dealer, catching some low key criminal in the act. I was good if I do say so myself. I got my missions done quick and without any loose ends. There were rumors that I was almost better than my mother at my age. But I wanted harder mission, I wanted to show that I was on par with everyone else. I begged and pleaded for months and then finally they gave me one. It wasn't anything super but it was better than what I was going at that moment. There were a bunch of suicides that were all interconnected by a small community of mutants hiding out in Philadelphia. Of course they were on SHIELDs radar but we decided to let them be. Until the suicides seems to pop up out of nowhere. I was sent down and through the next couple of days I found a connection- a man named Zebediah Kilgrave. He was a mutant with the power to take control over anyone. Not just put thoughts in their head I mean fully take control over their mind. Just by talking to you he could get you to rob a bank or kill a person. You are aware of what you are doing; you could be screaming in your head to stop or take control of your body but until he's out of your head- you're under his complete control.

"He raped me Peter. I tried everything. I tried to take control in every way I knew how. It felt like I was watching my body be a puppet on strings. I tried to kick and scream in my head but I was being held back by an invisible source." I was sobbing now. Words coming out in heaps, my breath was short and ragged. "He took my body and used it for his own pleasure and I just couldn't stop him. I know he had control over me and there wasn't anything I could do about it but yet everything I've been told throughout my life- taking care of myself. Being the freaking daughter of two Avengers." I cried. The weight of the story was now hanging in the air instead of on my chest and shoulders throughout the day.

I sat there crying by the bed, letting everything pimped up inside of me flow out. My body was shaking but my chest felt light. My breathing was ragged and short but I felt like a was taking my first real breathes in months. I focused and caught my breath and slowed them down. I looked at Peter and just as quickly as I had retrieve it my breath was taken away again.

Peter was looking at me. His eyes slightly open, his face understanding and his mouth formed a thin smile.

"Peter," I breathed out.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you." Peter spoke softly, his voice was horse. "Thank you for telling me your story. And Flint I just want to let you know, this doesn't change anything about how I feel about you. You're still amazing and wonderful and weird." He took a slow breath gathering his strength. "What happened to you wasn't in any way your fault. You were taken advantage of in the most sickening way and I promise as long as I am alive I will find Kilgrave and we will take him in okay? Don't feel guilty. It wasn't your fault." Peter looked sincere. My heart collapsed.

Carefully springing up I leaned over Peter and softly gave him a hug. He returned it with all the strength he had left. Pulling back his face was illuminated by the hallway light radiating in from the small window in the door.

My chest exploded and before I could stop myself I leaned down and placed my lips onto his. I felt his hand come up and softly place it against my neck pulling me slightly closer. His lips were dry but then again I didn't care.

I pulled away and looked at him. "I meant what I said back there too you know." I whispered in the air between us. "I do love you; you're my best friend." I wasn't sure what kind of love it was but one thing was certain- I didn't want to live and go through life without him by my side. It seemed odd that the daughter of the two most will-they-won't-they couple that didn't get together despite years of building a connection then had a daughter that fell head over heels in love within a few days.

Peter, wincing, moved over slightly leaving just barely enough room on the bed for me.

"You sure?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want to put him out. Peter nodded and carefully I laid myself beside him. We faced each other on our sides and intertwined our hands.

"I heard you," Peter mumbled. "The whole story. When I was out- it was like I was floating in this abyss that I couldn't get out of. I couldn't see, hear or move but then I heard your voice start talking and it just pulled me back into reality. Thank you." I could see that he meant it in his eyes. "How long have you've been here by the way?"

"Five days," I answered blushing.

"Without leaving?" He seemed a little astonished. I nodded. Peter smiled and then kissed my forehead. "Let's sleep," He suggested.

I fell into the most secure sleep I had gotten in months.


End file.
